Why should you open a bank or brokerage accounts abroad? Because it gives your investment portfolio higher returns and lower risks. How?

(5) For most of our clients we advice to bank/brokerage accounts in jurisdictions that do not tax non-resident capital gains. For example, if you are not a US person or US resident, capital gains from stocks and bonds made in the US are not taxable. In the UK, non-resident capital gains are taxable. However, the first 11 thousand pounds that you make each year are not taxable (i.e. maximum allowance). Within the Eurozone, many jurisdictions do not tax capital gains of non-residents. Moreover, even if any tax needs to be paid to foreign governments, it almost always can be credited against local gains due to multiple bilateral agreements. Each person has a different situation and dissimilar preferences. So, we recommend to reach out to us so we can construct a personalized tax strategy for your needs. If you are willing to move abroad, it may even be possible to legally avoid any kind of income taxation.

How is it legal?

There are basically 4 kinds of international taxation in the world:- Traditional Tax Havens: 0% income tax countries. Does not matter how much money one makes the government will never tax you on income, e.g. Monaco, St Kitts and Nevis, Cayman Islands, etc. - Territorial Taxation: Countries that only tax residents on locally made income: Singapore, Paraguay, Hong Kong, etc. If one has income from another country, there will not be any taxation. However, if one has a salary in Paraguay, for example, and resides in Paraguay, there will be taxation to be paid.- Residency Taxation: Citizens always pay tax, unless he/she has tax residency and works in a foreign country. The vast majority of the countries in the world have this type of taxation. - Taxation by Citizenship: Citizens will always pay tax, even they are living and working abroad. Only two countries have this taxation system, USA and Eritrea.Obs 1: These are taxations of residents. Taxation of non-residents with local income is often different.

As long as you are not American or Eritrean, the 2 simplest ways to legally pay 0% income tax are: Obs2: although Americans can still significantly decrease their tax duties.- Live in a place with no income tax, e.g. Monaco, and have all your income coming from this place through investments, normal job, etc. - Have a tax residency in a territorial taxation country, e.g. Singapore, and have your income coming from a 0% tax income country.

There are also many other ways to legally avoid taxation, for example: – Most country have maximum allowances to pay tax, e.g. if you earn less than a specific limit per year, you do not need to pay taxes. So, if you have fiscal residency from a territorial taxation or no taxation country, and you have a portfolio of investments across multiple countries and in none of them you cross the maximum allowance, you also do not need to pay taxes. – You have no fiscal residency and have your income coming from a no taxation state. How can you have no fiscal residency? You cannot meet the requirements of any country in a given year to become a tax resident. That can often be achieved by being constantly on the move. For example, you can divide the year in 4 pieces of 3 months, so you live all 3 months of the summer in the US, 3 months of the winter in Brazil, 3 months of the spring in Spain, and 3 months of the autumn in Thailand. Obviously, those are only examples. You can pick many countries to do this.– There are also many country specific loopholes. Here are a few: (1) Portugal has a program (non-habitual residency program) in which you can live there for 10 years and only pay taxes in locally earned income (i.e. territorial residency). 2) If you are a F-1 Visa student in the US, you also have 4 years of territorial taxation. So, one can live in Portugal for 10 years or in the US for 4 years, while his/her investments are in Monaco or the Bahamas and this person will not have to pay taxes during this period.(3) Malta has a remittance-based taxation - i.e. if you are a fiscal resident of Malta, you only pay taxes for Malta if you move your money to the country, so many people just never do it. (4) Brazil does not tax dividends. Therefore, one can have a portfolio based on dividends and not pay taxes legally. (5) Luxemburg do not tax capital gains on non-resident individuals that hold their stock/bond for more than 6 months. (6) It is also possible to open companies in tax havens (like Dubai or Estonia) to delay or even legally avoid taxation for good. (6) Among many others.

Is it legal to live in a low or zero tax country (i.e. tax haven) or move my company there?

Yes, this is 100% legal. More than 70% of the fortune 500 companies use tax havens to legally decrease their taxes. Some famous examples are Apple, Nike, Google, Walmart, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs, etc. Many of world's' most famous people also live in tax havens, such as Roger Moore (former James Bond actor), Lewis Hamilton (F1 pilot), Novak Djokovic (tennis player), Bono (U2 vocalist), among many others, in order to avoid or decrease taxation legally.

IMPORTANT: THERE IS NO TAX OR INVESTMENT STRATEGY THAT IS CLEARLY BETTER. IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR GOALS AND RESOURCES.

For example, are you willing to move abroad? If so, where? How long do want to stay in each place? What is your annual income? How much money are you willing to invest? Do you want short term gains or long term investments? What is (are) the source(s) of your income? How much taxes do you pay annually? Do you want to decrease your tax duties or completely remove it? Do you feel like you want to pay some taxes even if you do not need to? What is your citizenship? Do you have multiple citizenships?​Depending on each of these answers the best investment/tax strategy for you will differ. In order to see what option is best for you and to help with the implementation of the strategy feel free to reach out to us.

You do not need to be rich to create a global investment portfolio. Most of the bank and brokerage accounts we open do not have minimum initial deposit or maintenance fee. Thus, you can invest as much as you want or even leave the accounts empty until you have enough capital or interest to invest abroad.